Zhongyu and Super Z Attack Team

The Archives

Welcome to the dusty basement room where old news goes to avoid being forgotten.

Two Upcoming Gigs — Almost a Tour!

After months of working on recording demos and writing new material, it's time for the Team to reactivate in a live setting. So April will feature two live shows, including our first performance outside Seattle.

On Friday, April 26, we'll be appearing at the Blue Moon in the University District with Hound Dog Taylor's Hand and The Sheen from Bellingham. Check out The Sheen on Bandcamp.

The next night, we'll be trekking up to Bellingham for another show with The Sheen, this time at Make.Shift, which is a cool non-profit arts organization. More details to follow...

New Demos on Soundcloud

We've been working on documenting all the tunes in the Super Z repertoire, using our regular practice space as a studio. Generally, we'll do a few live takes until we get one we like, then Jon will take the basic tracks and do a few overdubs, equalization, and so on.

There's a playlist that happens to be about the normal length for a full album. Imagine that.

Website Updates and More Reviews

I finally took some time to add more content and do a little reorganizing. The album page was getting a little long, so I split up the album story, track details, and reviews onto separate pages.

A bunch more reviews are quoted and linked on the Reviews page, including writing from Spain, Peru, Italy, and the Netherlands in addition to the US. I'm very pleased that knowledgeable people with good taste are enjoying Zhongyu's music.

And for those with music geek tendencies who think about time signatures and scales, all tracks are now listed on the Tracks page, though honestly it's more about what I was thinking during writing and recording than technical stuff.

Super Z / Zhongyu Sonarchy Set Available Online

I'll save you the trouble of having to search for it, since KEXP only highlights recent shows on their website. You can go to this page to find our performance recorded in the summer of 2016. While the playing isn't quite flawless, the spirit and energy were great. It was such a privilege to be able to do this.

Reviews Are Coming In

From Francisco Macías in Spain writing on Discos Pat we get:

En un mundo en el que casi todo está ya inventado, una buena forma de innovar es saber mezclar elementos conocidos de una manera original, creativa, sin miedo a traspasar fronteras... "Sleepwalking the Dog" (6'41), una maravilla que contiene una preciosa melodía de violín y clarinete bajo, instrumentos que poco después hacen dos buenos solos, primero cada uno el suyo, y después otro alternándose, sobre un fantástico ritmo de stick y batería. El ritmo va haciéndose más intenso por segundos, hasta que llega el solo de guitarra, con el mellotrón de apoyo. ¡Genial!
Un disco fresco, lleno de vida, intenso y plagado de contrastes. ¿Qué más se puede pedir?

Which might be rendered in English:

In a world where almost everything has already been invented, a good way to innovate is able to mix known elements in an original, creative way, not afraid to cross borders... "Sleepwalking the Dog" (6'41), is a marvel that contains a beautiful melody on violin and bass clarinet, instruments which shortly take two good solos, first each on its own and then alternating, over a fantastic rhythm with Stick and drums. The rhythm becomes more intense second by second, until it reaches a guitar solo backed by Mellotron. Great!
A fresh album, full of life, intense and full of contrasts. What more could you ask for?

Sonarchy "Live" Radio Broadcast Scheduled

Back in July, all of the people involved in the band gathered at Jack Straw Productions to record a live set of music. The first half consisted of Jon, Jim, and Randy doing a set of Super Z tunes, then Alicia and Dennis joined for some Zhongyu material taken from the album.

The sonic mastermind of Sonarchy, Doug Haire, has mixed and mastered the live performance (no do-overs here!) and set the air date as October 23, 2016 on KEXP FM. The show goes on at midnight Sunday night (AKA Monday morning), but will also be available as a podcast for more convenient listening

A couple of the segments are posted on our Soundcloud page already, in Jon's own mixes, not Doug's.

The Zhongyu CD Is Out!

It's been years in the making, but the album is actually a real thing. Moonjune Records is distributing it — have a look at our Moonjune page, where you can find links to buy the CD online or get a download through Bandcamp. Full credits are listed on Discogs.

Zhongyu Photo Shoot Results

Somehow the five members of Zhongyu managed to get together for a photo shoot with photographer Danette Davis. This is one of many...

Camera-shy band still eludes photographers

Super Z Attack Team may or may not be a band consisting of anime characters, but for our first gig, this was the best we could do for a band portrait:

The art department is hard at work developing the character designs.

Upcoming Live Performance! — Substation

We have a show booked — something we hope to have more of in the future. This is a good start...

Thursday March 2, 2017 at the Substation

We'll be appearing with two other bands: Decent at Best and Professor Sweater. Check out the details on the Facebook event page. The Substation is one of the best clubs in Seattle, so please come out and support creative, adventurous music. We've got new material written since the Sonarchy show, and it's really sounding good. We're looking forward to testing it out on an unsuspecting public.

Upcoming Live Performance! — Parliament

We're looking forward to playing on Thursday, 13 April 2017 at the Parliament Tavern in West Seattle. Opening the show will be the first ever live performance of the band Pinto Wagonfire. The Parliament is a super friendly place, and there won't be a cover charge (just a donation bucket), so you have no excuse not to come. More details can be found on Facebook.